Product Review: Jabra Solemate

Ever been with a small group of friends at a picnic or the beach or a small intimate party in your backyard? You know music would add to the moment but you don’t have a way to get the music out to where you are. No speakers available and all you have is your phone on you and that won’t cut it, will it? Well, you can always make sure you have a fantastic sound system with you wherever you go with the Jabra Solemate.

The Jabra Solemate is a portable speaker that is easily connected to your BlackBerry phone, PlayBook or PC, for whatever entertainment situation you’re in. The Solemate can be connected either by, USB, Bluetooth connection or via a 3.5mm cable, which is provided and tucked snugly into the bottom of the unit. The Solemate is named after its design because the bottom of the Solemate is whimsically made to look like the sole of a shoe. This design provides the Solemate non-slip grip capabilities and enables the user the ability to put the device in some places some other portable speaker can’t be placed. Also, the Solemate comes with a splash and dirt proof sound bag. You can place your Solemate into the sound bag and protect it from the environment without a loss of any aural properties. Sound out: nothing bad in. A wonderful addition provided by Jabra that adds to the quality of their product. The Solemate is available in either black or white colors and at an MSRP of $199.00, the quality is apparent. You get everything you pay for and more.

When you get the Jabra Solemate paired to your device, you immediately know that the Solemate has connected with a vibrant voice announcing, “Solemate is connected”! On the top are three buttons; two allow volume control and the third functions as the battery status and answer and end key. Yes, this portable sound speaker also functions as a speakerphone. The audio quality of the phone calls is remarkable, coming through the quality speakers of the Solemate. Also I connected the Solemate to my MacBook Pro and used Skype to converse with a friend. The sound was astonishing and the microphone functioned extremely well.

The Solemate does best what it is designed to do. It provides a high quality sound with deep, rich bass due to a proprietary bass panel in the back of the unit. I constantly used the Solemate white doing the dishes and drove my kids crazy playing The Beatles and Zeppelin. I also did a lot of grilling outside and the Solemate produced loud and wonderful sounds. My neighbor wondered where the sound was coming from and was stunned at the sound coming from such a small portable speaker system.

Overall, this speaker system is just plain fantastic. This little bit of technology astonished my wife who can’t be bothered with anything “techy”. She used the speakers with her phone and I had a hard time using it. The Solemate brings sound to whatever device you choose to use it with. And as usual, Jabra delivers high quality with these portable speakers. Well worth the money because you’ll get so much use and reliability out of the Solemate.